I have been excited to share this one ever since it hit my lips at the dinner table last night…

Does that make me weird?

Oh well, who cares. If that’s weird then I don’t want to be “normal” 😉

Garlic Shrimp

Baked CHO-Cheese Grits

Spicy Bacon Green Beans

Sounds like a heart attack on a plate doesn’t it? Oh not so my friends, not so at all. Let me show you how you can make this Southern classic, but lightened up a bit – and trust me, it will still taste deeeeelicious!

Let’s start off with the grits, which were the true show stopper.

Baked CHO-Cheese Grits

Serves 8

You’re going to need about an hour and a half for these bad boys, but an hour of it is just waiting impatiently for them to bake in the oven 😉

2 cups stoneground yellow grits (prepared according to directions)

Since you want to use grits that have some texture for this dish, a stoneground option like these local Byrd’s Mill Farm stoneground yellow grits is perfect. But if you aren’t from VA, I’m sure you can find something similar in a grocery store/specialty store!

Using the Chobani yogurt allowed me to reduce the amount of butter & milk needed while still achieving the most wonderful flavor and thick creaminess!!!

Cook grits according to direction. I used 2 tblsp butter, 8 cups water and a pinch of sea salt to do this. These needed 20 minutes on the stove top before they were ready.

Now it’s time to combine.

Add the ingredients that you want to melt first – so the butter and shredded cheese.

Give a good stir so that the butter & cheese both melt and just fold right into the warm grits.

Next add in the Greek yogurt, which will help to cool the mixture down.

Pretty yogurt swirls! 😛

Add your hot sauce and milk, stir to incorporate. Lastly add your eggs. You want the grits mixture to be fairly cool before the eggs go in so that it doesn’t cook them – the yogurt & milk do a great job to make this work.

Pour the grits mixture into a large baking dish (sprayed with a bit of cooking spray) and put into a 350F oven, uncovered, for an hour.

Trust me, the wait is well worth it.

Your end result is a luscious, creamy, warm and cheesy mouthful in every bite.

The minimal amount of cheese & butter still manage to really shine through in flavor too!

So what to serve with these?

Garlic Shrimp

I simply boiled up about 20 (approximate) medium-sized shrimp until done, then added to a warm pan with 1 tblsp butter and 2 cloves of crushed garlic.

Note that the shrimp I made for this only served 3 – so plan on multiplying the recipe by 3 if you are serving 8 at that time.

And just because we should probably have our vegetables even if they are made with bacon 😉 …

I did modify it though (1) because I can’t seem to read directions and follow anything… yea yea, whatever and (2) because I didn’t find the need to add the additional fat that the original recipe called for, trying to keep things light(er) around here!

Just 4 slices of bacon goes a long way with this, enough to flavor the dish wonderfully for 8 servings!

Oh my word!!!! I have never had grits but I’ve never wanted them MORE than I do now. It looks like heaven in a casserole dish. 🙂 And doesn’t bacon make every veggie better???? What an awesome, amazing meal!!

I SWEAR you stole my idea! lol I make a cajun shrimp and grits that just so happens to be based on an Emril recipe but I put peperjack cheese in mine instead of cheddar. I was JUST thinking about this recipe and how I could lighten it and of COURSE my mind went straight to Chobani! Great minds I tell yah 😉
P.S. did you know grits and polenta are basically the same darn thing? Not many of us Italians will admit that because polenta sounds fancier but it’s essentially grits lol
P.P.S. I am now a memeber of Food Buzz Featured Publisher club! Is there a club? Well, there should be! 🙂